German Reciprocal Fragment

[Nor23]

German has two reciprocal strategies:

1. "sich" — reflexive pronoun, also used for reciprocal (bivalent). Occupies the object position; both "sich" uses preserve transitivity.

2. "einander" — dedicated reciprocal pronoun (bivalent). A single-word pronoun (not a bipartite NP like English "each other" or Icelandic "hvor...annad"). Unambiguously reciprocal, used to disambiguate from reflexive reading.

WALS Ch 106 classifies German as "mixed" because "sich" is shared between reflexive and reciprocal uses.

def German.Reciprocals.einander : Reciprocal.Marker

einander — dedicated reciprocal pronoun.

Equations

• German.Reciprocals.einander = { form := "einander", strategy := Reciprocal.Strategy.recipPronoun }

def German.Reciprocals.sich : Reciprocal.Marker

sich — reflexive pronoun in reciprocal use ([Sil12] fn. 13 treats sich-reciprocals as syntactic reciprocal verbs).

Equations

• German.Reciprocals.sich = { form := "sich", strategy := Reciprocal.Strategy.recipPronoun, readings := [Reciprocal.Reading.reciprocal, Reciprocal.Reading.reflexive] }

theorem German.Reciprocals.einander_distinct_from_sich : einander.form ≠ sich.form

The dedicated reciprocal form is distinct from the reflexive.

def German.Reciprocals.markers : List Reciprocal.Marker

Marker inventory: dedicated einander plus reflexive-identical sich — jointly the WALS "mixed" configuration.

Equations

• German.Reciprocals.markers = [German.Reciprocals.einander, German.Reciprocals.sich]